Professional criminal

Professional criminal is a legal term from the Weimar Republic for repeat offenders . During National Socialism, it led to the Customs Criminal Law of 1933, which provided for indefinite preventive detention.

history

Criminalists introduced the term for repeat offenders in the 1920s . The term was based on the thesis that repeat offenders pursued the crime as a profession .

During the time of National Socialism , this theory was adopted and led to two regulations:

On November 24, 1933, the law against dangerous habitual criminals and on measures of security and reform was passed (RGBl. I 995). In a perpetual was preventive detention provided, which could be ordered by a court and executed in regular prisons.

A "preventive detention decree" of November 13, 1933 was used to prevent crime. It defined a professional criminal who had been sentenced to at least six months' imprisonment at least three times within five years for an offense committed out of profit-seeking.

By February 1934, 525 preventive prisoners were locked up in the Lichtenburg concentration camp; later, “professional criminals ” were sent to the Esterwegen concentration camp and Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In February 1937 Heinrich Himmler ordered the arrest of two thousand “professional and habitual criminals” who were not permanently employed. This action was carried out in March 1937.

The total number of all “professional criminals” sent to the concentration camp, who were marked with a “green triangle” in the camp and who were later incorrectly referred to as temporary preventive prisoners , has not been adequately researched. There has been no research to date, particularly on the part of the concentration camp memorials.

literature

Robert Heindl : The professional criminal. A contribution to criminal law reform. Pan-Verlag R. Heise, Berlin 1926.
Dagmar Lieske: Inconvenient victims? "Professional criminals" as prisoners in Sachsenhausen concentration camp , Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86331-297-8 .
Patrick Wagner: National community without criminals. Conceptions and practice of the criminal police during the Weimar Republic and National Socialism , Hamburg 1996.
Helga Amesberger , Katrin Auer , Brigitte Halbmayr : Sexualized violence. Female experiences in Nazi concentration camps . Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85476-118-X .
Sylvia Köchl : The need for just atonement. Paths taken by 'professional criminals' to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Mandelbaum, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-85476-507-3 .
Frank Nonnenmacher : Tricks of the NS. Need to explain / Until today the concentration camp prisoners, who were called by the Nazis 'anti-socials' and 'professional criminals', are not recognized as victims. In: Friday of February 2, 2017, pp. 16-17.

Individual evidence

↑ Julia Hörath: Terror instrument of the "Volksgemeinschaft"? Concentration camp imprisonment for “anti-social” and “professional criminals” from 1933 to 1937/38. In: Journal of History . Vol. 60, H. 6, 2012, pp. 513-532, here p. 521 f.
↑ Julia Hörath: Terror instrument of the "Volksgemeinschaft"? Concentration camp imprisonment for “anti-social” and “professional criminals” from 1933 to 1937/38. In: Journal of History. Vol. 60, H. 6, 2012, pp. 513-532, here p. 522.
↑ Julia Hörath: Terror instrument of the "Volksgemeinschaft"? Concentration camp imprisonment for “anti-social” and “professional criminals” from 1933 to 1937/38. In: Journal of History. Vol. 60, H. 6, 2012, pp. 513-532, here p. 523.
^ Peter Longerich : Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 237.
↑ Wolfgang Ayaß : Black and Green Angles. The National Socialist Persecution of “Asocials” and “Criminals” - an overview of the history of research. In: Herbert Diercks (Red.): Excluded. “Asocials” and “criminals” in the National Socialist camp system. Contributions to the history of the National Socialist persecution in Northern Germany (= contributions to the history of the National Socialist persecution in Northern Germany. Vol. 11). Edition Temmen, Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8378-4005-6 , pp. 16–30, here p. 25.

[1] Julia Hörath: Terror instrument of the "Volksgemeinschaft"? Concentration camp imprisonment for “anti-social” and “professional criminals” from 1933 to 1937/38. In: Journal of History . Vol. 60, H. 6, 2012, pp. 513-532, here p. 521 f.

[2] Julia Hörath: Terror instrument of the "Volksgemeinschaft"? Concentration camp imprisonment for “anti-social” and “professional criminals” from 1933 to 1937/38. In: Journal of History. Vol. 60, H. 6, 2012, pp. 513-532, here p. 522.

[3] Julia Hörath: Terror instrument of the "Volksgemeinschaft"? Concentration camp imprisonment for “anti-social” and “professional criminals” from 1933 to 1937/38. In: Journal of History. Vol. 60, H. 6, 2012, pp. 513-532, here p. 523.

[4] Peter Longerich : Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 237.

[5] Wolfgang Ayaß : Black and Green Angles. The National Socialist Persecution of “Asocials” and “Criminals” - an overview of the history of research. In: Herbert Diercks (Red.): Excluded. “Asocials” and “criminals” in the National Socialist camp system. Contributions to the history of the National Socialist persecution in Northern Germany (= contributions to the history of the National Socialist persecution in Northern Germany. Vol. 11). Edition Temmen, Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8378-4005-6 , pp. 16–30, here p. 25.